UK Offence Report

Impersonating a constable

article 16 of The Dover Harbour Revision Order 2006

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

16 A person who, with intent to deceive, impersonates

a constable or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is

a constable shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

a fine not exceeding level

4 on the standard scale.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Requires proof of a state of mind
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove both that the conduct happened and that it was done with the state of mind the provision names (with intent to).

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: mens rea word in the offence-creating words: with intent to.

What would breach article 16?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. On these words an offence is committed where a person impersonates a constable or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is a constable.
  2. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Dover Harbour Revision Order 2006.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Summary only — tried in a magistrates’ court
Maximum fine
£2,500
Standard scale
Level 4
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
2 August 2006
In force from
16 August 2006
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This Note is not part of the Order) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

This Order makes amendments to the Dover Harbour Consolidation Act 1954, the Dover Harbour Act 1963 and the Dover Harbour Revision Orders 1969, 1977 and 1978. The Board’s powers to form committees are expanded and the Board is given power to promote subsidiaries. The Board’s powers of investment are extended. The Board’s power to appoint police constables is supplemented by a power to suspend constables. Minor variations are made to the Board’s restrictions on admission of dangerous goods within the harbour and the definition of dangerous goods includes a reference to the United Nations List compiled by the Committee of Experts of the United Nations on the transport of dangerous goods. The Board is required, in making any reference to that List for the purpose of exercising its powers under article 18 of the Order, to specify the edition of the List to which it is intended to refer and its date of publication by the United Nations. The Board is required to keep this and other important documents available for inspection at its principal office. The Board’s borrowing powers are extended and modernised. The powers of the Harbour Master are extended to enable him to give general directions, whether or not there is an emergency. The application of road traffic legislation to dock roads, formerly in the Dover Harbour Act of 1963, is modernised. The Board is also granted extended powers for the disposal of lost and abandoned property. The area of controlled land which is subject to a power to make byelaws under section 43 of the Dover Harbour Consolidation Act 1954 and which is shown coloured green on the plan in Schedule 3 to this Order, is altered to reflect topographical changes. Various statutory provisions relating to the Board are either substituted in modern language or in the case of spent, obsolete and redundant material, repealed.

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.92.

Basis
the provision says a person is “guilty of an offence”
Confidence
0.92 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source